a home
water birth
story
Felicity Crone, NCT volunteer breastfeeding counsellor, and mum of 2, tells us the story of Penelope's arrival into the world
7
Before my first labour I had read every positive birth book going, attended all the classes and practiced the exercises and affirmations. Which I'm sure helped but doing these things had felt pointless and tragic after such a traumatic encounter. So when it came to being pregnant second time around, I tried to reason with myself that whatever happens happens, but I knew it was important that I got the calm home birth I had always wished for.
I woke up at about 2.30ish in the morning with mild cramping, but didn't think much of it as I had had a few false starts the week before. I put my headphones with my audiobook back in and went back to sleep. Except I didn't sleep as I kept feeling these cramps. So I downloaded a contraction app and started timing them. It transpired they were going at a minute every 5 minutes. Hmm that seems frequent, I thought, but as they weren't really that uncomfortable I didn't take much notice of them. Amusingly the app started giving me helpful hints such as "time to go to hospital!" Which made me chuckle.
It was when I had an urgent need to go to the toilet that I thought maybe I should wake hubby just incase. So I did, and we went downstairs to discuss what to do. I had planned a homebirth so everything was pretty much ready to go. I was still in 2 minds at this point as to what to do next, but eventually decided to just let the midwife know that I was feeling something happen. When I eventually spoke to her she said she would come right away. I told her that although I was feeling surges coming on frequently, they really weren't that bad so I wasn't sure. She was coming from Oldmeldrum so said she'd be a while anyway. Things got more intense whilst she was on her way. By the time she got to us I was between surges and said I felt things had ramped up. I then had one in front of her, then another maybe 3 mins after. She immediately called midwife number 2, which I remember thinking was odd! Weirdly I still wasn't totally convinced I was in established labour as the pain really wasn't bad at all. Also I had only been awake for about 2 hours! My labour pains with my first child were unbearable, I was induced and very upset to be in hospital which I'm convinced made it worse. My husband ( who is always much more prepared than I am) had half filled the birth pool by then (continued overleaf)